V 


!  BT  77  .582  1914 
Stearns,  Wallace  N.  b.  1866. 

A  working  basis 


u  (i  I G  r 

5t 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2018  with  funding  from 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


https://archive.org/details/workingbasisandoOOstea 


A  WORKING  BASIS 


AND  OTHER  ESSAYS 

BY 

y 

WALLACE  N.  STEARNS 


BOSTON :  THE  GORHAM  PRESS 

TORONTO :  THE  COPP  CLARK  CO.,  Limited 


Copyright,  19141  by  Wallace  N.  Stearns 


All  Rights  Reserved 


The  Gorham  Press,  Boston,  U.  S.  A. 


TO  THE 


MEMORY  OF  MY  MOTHER 


•'i 


't;  ■ 


to. 


t 


PREFACE 


IN  common  with  my  fellows  in  the  teach¬ 
ing  profession,  it  has  been  my  duty  to 
endeavor  in  simplest  terms  to  answer 
certain  inquiries,  to  the  end  that  inquir¬ 
ing  minds  might  gain  some  approach  to  what 
are  really  the  greatest  problems  in  the  stu¬ 
dent  life. 

If  these  efforts  help  some  one  to  a  footing 
on  the  pathway  that  leads  to  more  serious  ef¬ 
fort  and  stimulate  a  desire  for  further  in¬ 
quiry,  we  are  content. 


have  no  quarrel  with  theology ;  I  know 
none  to  quarrel  with.  What  is  beyond  lifers 
spectrum  is  a  mystery  to  me.  I  do  not  know 
much  of  the  ultra  red  or  ultra  violet  either , 
except  that  there  is  power  and  force  and  wis¬ 
dom  existing  there.  But  the  play  of  colors  be¬ 
tween,  with  its  high  lights  and  its  dark  lines, 
I  do  know  a  little  of,  and  I  love  it — just  as  I 
love  our  ocean  down  here,  with  its  depths,  its 
strength  and  its  dangers,  its  colors  and  moods, 
its  icy  mountains,  its  trackless  wastes,  and  yet 
withal  its  snug  harbors  and  sheltering  islands 
and  warm  land  breezesJ’ 


Grenfell. 


CONTENTS 


Page 


I  A  Working  Basis .  1 1 

II  On  Reconciliation .  i? 

III  On  Immortality  .  3^ 

IV  On  Conscience  .  45 

V  On  the  Reasonableness  of 

Prayer .  53 

VI  On  the  Seat  of  Authority  in  Re¬ 
ligion  .  ^3 

VII  On  the  Person  of  Christ .  73 

VIII  On  Progressive  Revelation.  ...  83 

IX  On  Faith  and  Science .  97 


A  WORKING  BASIS 


^^When  that  which  is  perfect  is  come  that 
which  is  in  part  shall  he  done  away!^ 

— Paul, 


A  WORKING  BASIS 

The  only  thing  constant  in  this 
world  is  change.  W^hat  was  here 
yesterday  is  not  here  today  and 
what  is  here  today  will  be  gone  to¬ 
morrow.  Change  is  the  law  of  progress,  the 
assurance  of  life.  Rest  is  stagnation,  death. 
The  only  difference  between  a  rut  and  a  grave 
is  one  of  depth.  Uniformity,  monotony,  fix- 
— this  would  be  an  impossible  world. 

That  our  thinking  conforms  to  this  law 
need  not  be  cause  for  alarm.  Changing  opin¬ 
ion  proclaims  larger  wisdom,  a  more  intelli¬ 
gent  hold  on  the  verities.  It  is  not  truth  that 
changes,  but  our  vision  of  the  truth,  our  ap¬ 
prehension  of  that  which  we  have  not  com¬ 
prehended.  The  distant  view  toward  which 
we  have  travelled  changes  at  each  step  or, 
better,  our  conception  of  it  constantly  approx¬ 
imates  to  the  reality. 


II 


12 


A  WORKING  BASIS 


What  is  true  of  the  individual  mind  is  true 
of  the  race.  For  a  generation  at  a  time 
thought  has  seemed  to  stand  dormant,  appar¬ 
ently  content  with  what  had  been  achieved. 
Again  as  if  by  an  upheaval,  criticism,  at  times 
destructive,  has  wrought  havoc  with  tradi¬ 
tion,  and  mind  like  an  unwilling  mariner  has 
set  out  in  quest  of  a  new  haven.  Such  crises 
have  often  been  the  heralds  or  even  the  con¬ 
comitants  of  periods  of  political  and  social 
stress.  But  despite  temporary  distress,  such 
experiences  have  wrought  for  better  times. 
The  checkered  and  often  disastrous  career  of 
Greek  philosophy,  for  example,  helped  to  pre¬ 
pare  the  way  for  Christian  thinking,  and  we 
are  only  just  beginning  to  learn  the  debt  we 
owe. 

The  query  arises,  what  are  we  to  do  while 
we  are  thus  painfully  approaching  the  truth, 
which  is  still  so  far  away  and  so  far  from  at¬ 
tainment?  We  must  establish  a  working  basis. 
The  carpenter  in  the  construction  of  a  build- 


A  WORKING  BASIS 


13 


ing  erects  a  structure  roughly  conforming  to 
the  plan.  This  is  not  permanent,  but  for  the 
time  being.  It  is  not  the  building  but  a  scaf¬ 
fold.  It  is  the  growing  platform  on  which 
the  workmen  may  stand  as  they  build.  The 
man  of  science  constructs  as  well  as  he  can 
from  the  partial  data  at  hand  a  working  hypo¬ 
thesis.  No  one  knows  better  than  he  the  tran¬ 
sient  nature  of  the  theory  formulated,  no  one 
holds  it  with  a  greater  readiness  to  discard  a 
working  hypothesis  when  discovery  reveals  its 
further  futility.  It  was  a  working  basis,  and 
for  the  time  being  served  as  a  point  of  ref¬ 
erence.  Growing  knowledge  compels 
changes  in  this  working  basis.  Theories  like 
text-books  have  their  day  and  disappear. 

So  far  from  giving  occasion  for  alarm 
there  is  cause  for  gratitude.  The  honest 
mind  need  not  fear,  but  rather  move  confi¬ 
dently  forward.  It  is  not  dissatisfaction  but 
unsatisfaction.  There  is  no  quarrel  with  the 
old,  simply  a  longing  to  keep  pace  with  the 


14 


A  WORKING  BASIS 


present 

The  thinking  mind  should  beware,  how¬ 
ever,  lest  a  working  hypothesis  become  a  defi¬ 
nition.  A  definition  ceases  to  be  true  as  soon 
as  framed.  That  which  was  defined  has  gone 
on,  changing  ever  into  something  apparently 
new;  the  definition  remains  cold,  lifeless,  in¬ 
ert,  changeless.  Too  many  think  they  are 
holding  to  an  old  faith  when  they  are  holding 
only  to  a  time-honored  definition. 

We  should  seek  rather  illustrations.  A 
statement  even  of  fact  is  but  an  illustration 
whereby  we  convey  our  understanding  for  the 
time  being.  With  our  approximation  to  real¬ 
ity  the  definition  becomes  a  yoke  on  our  necks 
rather  than  a  help :  if  viewed  as  illustrations 
merely,  our  statements  become  what  they 
ought  to  be  and  really  are,  working  bases, 


ON  RECONCILIATION 


^^For  God  was  in  Christ  reconciling  the 
world  to  Himself F  — Paul. 


ON  RECONCILIATION 


SOME  truths  are  imbedded  deep  in  the 
human  consciousness.  They  are  older 
than  the  Old  and  New  Testaments, 
they  are  as  broad  and  deep  as  the 
Eternal.  Of  such  is  religion,  There  never 
has  been  a  race  or  an  age  that  did  not  recog¬ 
nize,  though  crudely,  the  claims  of  religion. 
The  occasional  revulsions  of  men  have  been 
offset  by  counter  movements,  and  by  a  deep¬ 
er  hold  upon  what  had  been  for  a  time  re¬ 
pudiated.  Theologies  have  changed,  dogmas 
have  been  abandoned,  but  faith  and  religion 
have  continued.  As  religion  is  the  deepest 
and  strongest  of  the  emotions,  so,  naturally, 
men  have  been  conservative  in  changing  re¬ 
ligious  opinions  and  their  conservatism  here¬ 
in  may  be  evidence  of  the  intense  reality  of 
religion  rather  than  indication  of  mere  ob¬ 
stinacy. 

17 


i8 


A  WORKING  BASIS 


Fundamental  in  religion  are  the  ideas  of  a 
supreme  being,  of  man’s  relation  to  that  be¬ 
ing,  of  the  sundering  of  that  relation,  of 
man’s  guilt  therefor,  and  of  a  desire  for  re¬ 
storation  or  renewal.  Here,  as  ever,  we  must 
forbear  definitions  and  be  content  with  pic¬ 
tures  or  illustrations.  These  basal  concep¬ 
tions  are  too  deep  for  hard  and  fast  terms, 
for  the  rigor  and  vigor  of  logic. 

Judaism,  together  with  other  cults,  held  to 
these  beliefs,  and  the  pious  Jew  sought  a  me¬ 
dium  for  expression.  Men  sought  for  that 
figure  which  most  fully  and  adequately  con¬ 
veyed  the  full  meaning  and  significance. 
Whatever  may  have  been  the  origin  of  the 
rite,  the  Jews  were  wont  to  offer  as  a  sacrifice 
the  choicest  of  their  herds  and  flocks.  The 
best  they  had  was  none  too  good,  and  no  less 
than  this  was  demanded  by  the  Law.  Chris¬ 
tianity  born  as  it  was  out  of  Judaism  naturally 
availed  itself  of  Jewish  imagery  and  form.  In 
seeking  for  language,  for  pictures  that  could 


ON  RECONCILIATION 


19 


express  the  mission  and  work  of  Jesus,  the 
early  Christians  found  what  they  sought  in 
the  sacrificial  system  of  Judaism.  Jesus  was 
represented  as  the  Sacrifice,  the  lamb  that  was 
slain.  That  is,  what  the  lamb  had  typified 
under  the  old  system,  that  did  Jesus  repre¬ 
sent  under  the  new,  mediation  between  God 
and  man.  This  was  not  a  definition,  not  even 
an  adequate  expression;  it  was  only  a  picture, 
a  symbol,  a  type, — transient  but  suitable  for 
the  time. 

Christianity  passed  to  the  western  world. 
The  new  auditors  were  not  Jews  but  Gentiles, 
the  larger  Graeco-Roman  world.  The  early 
preachers  now  cast  about  for  a  language 
wherewith  to  convey  their  message,  language 
that  would  be  understood  by  those  to  whom 
the  message  had  now  come. 

Greek  philosophy  during  the  years  had  not 
been  idle.  They  had  sought  to  solve  the  prob¬ 
lem  of  human  destiny  and  in  their  search  had 
hit  upon  the  idea  of  a  supreme  being.  But  be- 


20 


A  WORKING  BASIS 


tween  this  being,  whom  they  had  made  trans- 
cendant,  and  man,  stood  an  impassible  chasm. 
The  fatality  of  the  Greek  thought  was  dual¬ 
ism.  In  endeavoring  to  mediate  so  as  to 
avoid  this  dualism  they  brought  in  something 
which,  like  the  deus  ex  machina  of  their 
drama,  should  arbitrarily  cut  the  knot.  As¬ 
suming  that  from  the  supreme  being  there 
emanated  potencies  or  forces,  it  was  by  means 
of  these  that  the  god  (or  God)  worked  upon 
and  influenced  the  world  without  being  di¬ 
rectly  an  agent  or  suffering  contamination. 
These  assembled  potencies  the  Greeks  termed 
Logos.  Here  was  the  Christians’  hope,  here 
was  a  symbol,  an  illustration — though  not  a 
definition — of  the  mission  and  work  of  Jesus. 
The  fourth  gospel  opens  with  this  figure,  “In 
the  beginning  was  the  Logos.”  What  Greek 
philosophers  had  sought,  that  Christianity 
taught — a  mediator,  and  this  not  an  abstract 
principle  but  a  living  personality. 

Were  Jesus  to  come  to  our  land  and  age — 


ON  RECONCILIATION 


21 


and  were  they  to  seek  for  an  illustration  of 
the  fulness  of  Jesus’  mission  and  of  his  abso¬ 
lute  devotion  to  that  mission,  they  would 
search  for  some  figure  familiar  to  us,  drawn 
from  the  life  about  us.  Possibly  no  better 
picture  could  be  found  than  that  of  the  Mis¬ 
sionary,  who  in  obedience  to  a  conviction  of 
duty  leaves  home,  friends,  future,  comfort, 
even  the  bare  necessities  of  life  and  in  the 
midst  of  perils  from  a  deadly  climate,  wild 
beasts,  venomous  serpents,  and  fierce  canni¬ 
bals  seeks  to  call  men  back  to  God.  Finally, 
it  may  be,  he  dies  at  the  hands  of  the  savages 
he  sought  to  save.  This  is  not  a  definition, 
but  perhaps  no  better  example  can  be  found  in 
our  modern  life  of  the  fulness  and  earnestness 
of  Jesus’  mission. 

From  the  mediaeval  conception  has  come 
down  the  word  “atonement.”  From  Jerome 
to  the  Reformation  the  Vulgate  ruled  the 
Western  Church.  In  this  translation  occurs 
the  word  “poenitentia,”  penance,  of  which 


22 


A  WORKING  BASIS 


the  base  is  the  word  “poena,”  i.  e.  punishment, 
expiation.  In  the  old  English  version  oc¬ 
curred  the  word  “atonement,”  which  word 
also  came  to  convey  the  sense  of  expiation,  of 
removing  the  burden  of  the  guilt  by  penance 
or  suffering.  But  if  we  trace  this  word  back 
to  its  source,  we  find  it  not  the  trisyllable,  a- 
tone-ment,  but  in  reality  a  compound  word, 
thus,  at-one-ment,  i.  e.  a  state  of  harmony  or 
of  reconciliation. 

We  find  additional  light  in  an  experience 
of  Luther.  Luther  had  sought  in  the  Witten¬ 
berg  library  for  further  light.  In  a  copy  of 
the  Greek  Testament  he  looked  up  the  crucial 
passages  and  there  found  not  the  Latin  idea 
of  penance  but  the  Greek  word  “Metanoia,” 
change  of  mind,  change  of  purpose.  Here, 
then,  was  the  solution.  The  Christian  life 
meant  a  new,  a  changed  life,  a  “right-about- 
face”  in  conduct.  This  was  the  coming  to 
birth  in  Luther’s  mind  of  the  new  order,  and 
the  religious  reformation  in  Germany  really 


ON  RECONCILIATION 


23 


began. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  whether 
Jesus  uttered  on  this  problem  any  word  that 
will  bring  simplicity.  This  we  find  in  the 
three  parables  of  the  lost  articles,— the  lost 
coin,  the  lost  sheep  and  the  lost  son.  These 
three  stories,  each  an  advance  on  the  preced¬ 
ing,  bear  a  common  message,  but  by  reason 
of  their  varied  selection  appeal  to  a  larger 
circle  and  by  reason  of  their  common  teach¬ 
ing  enforce  the  lesson  taught. 

A  certain  sheik  had  two  sons.  As  was  le¬ 
gally  his  privilege  the  younger  son  asked  for  a 
division  of  the  estate.  With  misgivings  the 
father  complied,  and  the  boy  now  in  posses¬ 
sion  started  out  to  achieve  his  fortune.  At 
the  outset  all  went  well.  The  hearty,  easy¬ 
going,  rich  young  man  found  plenty  of 
friends — such  friends,  most  of  them,  as  are  al¬ 
ways  ready  to  gather  like  buzzards  wherever 
there  is  promise  of  selfish  advantage.  Finally, 
hard  times  came.  It  may  be  that  famine, 


24 


A  WORKING  BASIS 


drought,  a  raid  of  brigands,  or  any  of  the 
misfortunes  to  which  Oriental  life  is  subject, 
was  added  to  profligacy.  The  rich  young 
man  went  broke.  Shabby  clothing  banned  his 
erstwhile  friends,  and  gaunt  hunger  drove 
him  out  to  find  work.  He,  the  son  of  a  leader 
of  Israel,  must  now  seek  work,  and  he  found 
it  at  the  hand  of  a  Gentile  drover,  and  the 
man  he  despised  for  his  race,  sent  the  youth  to 
tend  swine,  the  beast  among  animals  most 
held  in  abhorrence  by  the  Jew.  But  the  rich 
young  man  had  no  trade  or  profession,  no 
money,  no  friends.  He  accepted  the  job.  It 
was  poor  hire.  He  could  not  earn  enough  to 
eat,  and  his  clothing  ill  in  keeping  with  his 
work  grew  each  day  more  shabby.  Having 
ample  time  and  no  company  he  mused.  Mem¬ 
ory  stayed  with  him.  He  recalled  the  picture 
of  his  happy  life  in  his  father’s  home.  At 
last  in  his  want  and  misery  he  resolved  to  go 
home  and  ask  his  father  for  work,  for,  said 
he,  my  father’s  hired  men  have  enough  and 


ON  RECONCILIATION 


25 


to  spare.  As  he  neared  the  old  home  and  fa¬ 
miliar  landmarks  met  his  eye,  the  returning 
prodigal  began  to  plan  for  the  meeting.  Even 
his  plea  was  a  part  of  his  concern :  “Father,  I 
have  sinned  against  heaven  and  in  thy  sight. 

I  am  no  more  worthy  to  be  called  thy  son: 
make  me  as  one  of  thy  hired  servants. 

But  Providence  had  planned  otherwise.  In 
the  gateway  of  the  old  homestead  for  many 
a  day  the  father  had  sat,  as  was  the  custom  in 
Israel,  to  receive  the  greetings  of  the  passers- 
by  and  to  pass  in  judgment  on  such  disputes 
as  might  be  brought  before  him.  And  for 
many  a  day  he  had  been  thinking  of  that  son 
and  how  it  fared  with  him.  His  own  experi¬ 
ence  had  taught  him  the  possible  exigencies 
of  life  and  he  may  well  have  divined  the  boy’s 
lot.  No  doubt,  many  a  homeless  wanderer 
enjoyed  hospitality  at  the  old  father’s  hand  in 
memory  of  the  boy  and  with  a  father  s  prayer 
that  if  in  want  the  boy  might  find  favor  in 
some  one’s  eyes. 


26 


A  WORKING  BASIS 


At  last  the  boy  is  nearing  home.  The  hour 
for  the  meeting  is  drawing  near.  Fearful  of 
the  reception,  the  boy  hesitates.  The  father 
catches  sight  of  the  approaching  figure.  The 
halting  confession  is  checked  by  the  father’s 
greetings :  “This  is  my  son  who  was  lost,  and 
is  found;  who  was  dead  and,  is  alive  again.” 
The  best  the  house  afforded  was  none  too 
good.  The  protest  of  the  elder  brother  gives 
a  finishing  touch  to  the  picture.  “All  that  I 
have  is  thine.”  Forgiveness  could  not  re¬ 
store  squandered  health  or  wealth,  but  for¬ 
giveness  is  a  reality. 

There  is  no  angry  father,  no  penance.  The 
son  sins  and  as  a  result  suffers :  he  repents  and 
returns.  The  father  hopes,  expects,  awaits, 
forgives,  and  receives  again  a  wayward  but 
repentant  boy.  Even  in  his  sin  he  was  constant¬ 
ly  an  object  of  his  father’s  love  and  neither 
adversity  nor  his  own  unworthiness  could 
take  him  out  of  the  family.  “This,  my  son 
was  dead,  and  is  alive  again ;  he  was  lost,  and 


ON  RECONCILIATION  27 


is  found.” 

Similarly  the  scientist  with  wealth  of  learn¬ 
ing,  the  reward  of  his  efforts  now  well  before 
him,  turns  aside  from  glowing  prospects  and 
a  glowing  career,  to  devote  himself  to  determ¬ 
ining  the  germ  of  some  fell  disease,  to 
die,  it  may  be,  a  victim  of  that  same  disease. 
The  spirit  of  the  Nazarene  inspired  them  all, 
and  all  afforded  a  spectacle  of  self-sacrificing 
devotion. 

Throughout  change  and  divers  interpreta¬ 
tions  fact  abides.  Sin,  or  whatever  it  may  be, 
is  destroying.  The  path  of  the  regenerate  is 
the  same  back-track,  and  the  earlier  the  trans¬ 
formation,  the  larger  the  margin  of  life  and 
the  positive  result  to  be  achieved.  Far  better, 
however,  than  a  life  redeemed  is  a  life  pre¬ 
served  from  its  very  inception  from  whatever 
debases.  This,  however,  is  an  ideal.  We 
are  all  but  miniatures  of  what  we  might  have 
been. 


ON  IMMORTALITY 


*^Hence  in  a  season  of  calm  weather 
Though  inland  far  we  he, 

Our  souls  have  sight  of  that  immortal 
Which  brought  us  hither, 

Can  in  a  moment  travel  thither. 

And  see  the  children  sport  upon  the  shore. 
And  hear  the  mighty  waves  rolling  evermore 

— Wordsworth. 

^When  that  which  drew  from  out  the 

boundless  deep  turns  again  homeJ^ 

— Tennyson. 

^^As  for  life  hereafter,  I  know  little  or 
nothing  about  it;  but  that  is  not  of  any  great 
importance,  because  I  want  it,  whatever  it  is.'* 

— Grenfell. 


\ 


ON  IMMORTALITY 


PROBABLY  no  questions  have  more 
generally  engaged  man’s  mind, 
caused  deeper  concern  or  inspired 
with  greaterhope  than  those  that  have 
to  do  with  his  destiny  and  with  what  may  yet 
await  him  after  that  great  change  we  call 
death.  “If  a  mighty  man  die,  will  he  live 
again?”  queries  Israel’s  sage.  “What  is  life? 
asks  the  Saxon  king.  “Life,”  answers  the 
wise  man,  “is  as  when  a  sparrow  flits  from  the 
cold  into  the  light  and  warmth  of  the  room 
but  for  a  moment,  and  out  again  into  the 
storm.”  And  the  Apostle,  seeking  to  com¬ 
fort  the  baffled  Corinthians,  says,  “That 
which  thou  sowest  is  not  quickened  except  it 
die.” 

It  is  just  to  inquire  first  into  the  nature 
of  what  we  are  seeking  and  to  make  sure 
of  a  few  fundamental  propositions.  It  is 

31 


32 


A  WORKING  BASIS 


crude  to  think  of  body  and  soul  as  separate 
entities :  they  are  not  to  be  thought  of  in  their 
separateness.  Physical  body  is  not  a  recepta¬ 
cle  nor  is  soul  something  to  be  contained.  Life 
is  the  manifestation  of  personality,  which  me¬ 
dium  may  change  with  conditions  and  envi¬ 
ronment.  Life  is  the  manifestation  of  self,  of 
an  individual  personality  under  forms  adapt¬ 
ed  to  existing  needs.  Body  and  soul,  space 
and  time  are  convenient  terms  like  pounds 
and  dollars,  suited  to  our  finite  convenience, 
for  the  barter  of  our  minds.  Physical  death  is 
not  the  terminal  of  our  existence  anymore  than 
is  day  or  night:  it  is  not  a  finality  but  a  change 
in  mode.  This  corruptible  must  put  on  incor¬ 
ruption,  i.  e.  what  is  immortal  must  become 
clothed  in  deathlessness, — which  is  only 
picturing  forth  of  the  change  in  nature  under 
the  likeness  of  changed  apparel  and  the  re¬ 
sulting  change  in  appearance.  Eternal  life, 
then,  is  the  persistence  and  identity  of  the  in¬ 
dividual  self* 


ON  IMMORTALITY 


33 


Whence,  then,  the  idea  of  a  physical  resur¬ 
rection  in  Christianity.  Judaism  looked  for¬ 
ward  to  a  golden  age,  “Ha-Olam  Hab-ba.” 
This  restored  state  was  practically  a  revival 
under  divine  guidance  of  the  glory  of  the  an¬ 
cient  kingdom  and  that,  too,  within  the 
bounds  of  the  homeland.  The  pious  Jew, 
though  he  died  in  foreign  lands,  was  thus  re¬ 
stored  to  the  land  of  his  fathers.  Such  a  res¬ 
urrection  was  physical,  and  that  by  virtue  of 
the  possession  of  a  physical  body.  Born  of 
Jewish  parentage,  swaddled  in  the  garb  of 
Jewish  thinking,  Christianity  could  not  whol¬ 
ly  escape  Jewish  influence.  Even  before  the 
close  of  the  first  century  Christian  thought 
was  clarifying  itself.  The  “grain  of  wheat” 
that  fell  into  the  ground  was  the  symbol  of 
the  advanced  thinking  of  the  early  Church, 
remaining  in  the  ground  yet  appearing  above 
transformed  and  multiplied.  Leaders  of  the 
Christian  community  were  catching  a  new 
glimpse  of  the  truth — not  of  resurrection  but 


34 


A  WORKING  BASIS 


of  immortality. 

With  this  view  of  the  problem  it  is  in  place 
to  inquire  into  the  nature  of  the  evidence. 
Truth  may  be  demonstrable,  as  scientific  or 
mathematical,  or  cumulative  and  probable. 
Even  demonstrable  proof  is  an  uncertain 
quantity.  Science  is  a  statement  of  phenom¬ 
ena  as  they  appear  to  us:  the  increased  wis¬ 
dom  of  to-morrow  will  render  different  the 
things  which  now  appear,  and  our  apprehen¬ 
sions  of  facts,  of  realities,  will  need  to  give 
place  to  a  larger  and  more  nearly  perfect  un¬ 
derstanding  of  things.  Much  of  our  knowl¬ 
edge,  our  certainty,  rests  on  probable  proof. 
There  is  a  probability  of  events,  to  doubt 
which  would  do  violence  to  our  better  selves. 
Should  one  object  that  in  matters  of  so  great 
moment  as  religion  there  must  be  more,  and 
more  convincing,  argument,  let  such  a  one 
bear  in  mind  that  it  does  not  necessarily  fol¬ 
low  that  the  weightier  subject  demands  more 
evidence  but  rather  the  more  jealous  consid- 


ON  IMMORTALITY 


35 


eratlon  and  more  scrupulous  use  of  the  evi¬ 
dence  we  have. 

Faith  is  at  the  basis  of  all  evidence,  at  the 
foundation  of  every  phase  of  life.  And  faith 
is  reasonable.  It  is  not  blind  credence,  but 
living  up  to  the  best  that  is  in  us.  The  as¬ 
tronomer  who  night  after  night  turns  his 
glass  to  that  quarter  of  the  heavens  where 
signs  indicate  the  presence  of  an  unknown 
star,  and  the  navigator  turning  the  prow  of 
his  vessel  westward  to  lands  never  seen  but 
to  which  he  is  urged  by  reasons  to  him  in¬ 
controvertible,  are  both  acting  on  faith.  Con¬ 
fidence,  on  which  commerce  and  trade  are 
founded,  is  only  a  mode  of  faith. 

Demonstrable  proof  is  still  unavailable. 
Science  has  no  direct  proof  to  offer.  Psychol¬ 
ogy  has  failed  to  find  a  soul.  Life  seems  in¬ 
terrelated  with  organism,  intelligence  with 
complexity  of  organization,  and  weakness  and 
mental  decay  with  arrested  growth  or  even 
the  stoppage  of  the  blood  to  brain  and  the 


3^ 


A  WORKING  BASIS 


higher  nerve  centres.  However,  this  may  be 
an  accompaniment:  the  complex  may  not 
cause  the  higher  intellectuality.  No  avenue 
has  been  found  to  a  spirit-world:  mediums 
have  not  yet  convinced :  death-bed  scenes 
comfort  but  do  not  prove  nor  indeed  are  they 
always  consistent.  Again,  the  “permanence 
of  species”  does  not  preserve  the  individual, 
which  transient  emerges  from  and  is  again 
merged  in  the  universal. 

The  silence  of  science  is  not  to  be  construed 
as  a  negative  argument.  Immortality  is  not 
a  datum  of  the  sensuous  world:  it  lies  without 
the  realm  of  material  things.  And  at  all  events 
the  opposite,  the  death  of  soul,  is  not  and  can¬ 
not  be  proved.  “I  believe  in  the  Immortality 
of  the  soul,”  says  John  Fiske,  “not  in  the 
sense  in  which  I  believe  in  the  demonstrable 
truths  of  science,  but  as  a  supreme  act  of 
faith  in  the  reasonableness  of  God’s  work.” 

But  science  has  found  a  hint  which  like  a 
broken  strand  suggests  things  hereafter.  Evo- 


ON  IMMORTALITY 


37 


lution  has  found  in  men  the  acme  of  creation 
gradually  becoming  more  perfect.  On  the 
brink  of  the  grave  we  ask,  Is  this  all?  Is  life 
a  shattered  pillar  to  crumble  to  dust?  Has 
creative  purpose  wrought  thus  far  only  to  be 
overwhelmed  with  defeat?  Progress  so  glor¬ 
iously  begun  under  natural  laws  must  find  its 
continuity  in  the  spiritual  world.  Evolution 
suggests  something  more  to  be  evolved.  We 
leave  the  world  of  demonstrable  truth  with  a 
promising  hint  and  without  finding  an  argu¬ 
ment  against  our  craving  for  immortality. 
The  changing  character  of  science,  the  enlarg¬ 
ing  boundaries,  may  yet  yield  evidence  on  sub¬ 
jects  thus  far  beyond  its  ken. 

Consensus  of  opinion  has  ever  been  in  fav¬ 
or  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  The  fact 
that  erroneous  doctrines  endure  is  evidence  of 
a  morsel  of  truth  that  has  somewhere  entered 
into  their  composition.  All  tribes  and  peoples 
have  held  in  some  form  or  other  to  the  per¬ 
petuity  of  the  self.  The  shadowy  dream- 


38 


A  WORKING  BASIS 


world  of  the  savage  where  he  roams  and 
hunts  with  his  companions  and  friends  long 
dead;  the  Hindoo’s  Nirvana  that  merged  in¬ 
dividuals  into  the  whole  and  thus  preserved 
the  species  though  not  the  units ;  the  fathom¬ 
less  mystery  of  Egypt  with  the  huge  pyramids 
embellished  within  with  painted  fancies;  the 
shadowy  Sheol  of  the  Hebrews;  and  the 
teachings  of  Greece  from  the  uncertain  realm 
of  Hades  to  the  Elysian  fields  of  Homer,  all 
attest  the  universality  and  intensity  of  a  con¬ 
viction  which  will  not  be  gainsaid. 

Christianity  combined  the  mystic  splendor 
of  Greek  speculation  with  the  moral  signifi¬ 
cance  of  the  Jewish  system.  It  was  Chris¬ 
tianity  that  first  gave  real  moral  significance 
to  the  thought.  The  records  that  underlie 
the  story  of  Jesus  are  credible.  The  features 
that  seem  foreign  to  our  Western  way 
of  thinking  are  the  ear-marks  of  historicity 
certifying  to  the  professed  dates  and  habitat 
of  the  writings.  They  represent  the  recog- 


ON  IMMORTALITY 


39 


nized  and  acknowledged  characteristics  of  the 
great  literary  group  of  which  they  are  a  part. 
In  the  details  we  are  not  concerned.  The 
great  and  indeed  only  essential  is  this,  that  a 
scattered,  hiding,  disheartened  band  of  fugi¬ 
tives  came  to  a  conviction,  became  aware  of 
the  continued  existence  and  identity — it  mat¬ 
ters  not  in  what  form — of  their  fallen  leader. 
These  same  fugitives  were  transformed  by 
their  experience  into  a  conquering  force, 
which,  within  three  centuries,  in  an  era  of  cul¬ 
ture,  learning,  and  acute  philosophical  specu¬ 
lation,  established  a  recognized  religion  for 
the  civilized  world.  Years  after  the  event 
Paul  could  say,  “He  was  seen  by  upward  of 
five  hundred  at  once,  many  of  whom  are  alive 
to  this  day.”  If  ever  Paul’s  statement  was 
challenged,  the  shrewdest  and  bitterest  of  the 
opponents  of  Christianity  failed  to  take 
note  of  it. 

A  rational  philosophical  basis  is  possible. 
“That  will  last  forever  which  on  account  of 


40 


A  WORKING  BASIS 


its  excellence  and  its  spirit  must  be  an  abiding 
part  of  the  universe;  what  lacks  that  preserv¬ 
ing  worth  will  perish.”  “My  life  as  a  casual 
system  of  physical  and  psychical  processes, 
which  lies  spread  out  in  time  between  the 
dates  of  my  birth  and  of  my  death,  will  come 
to  an  end  with  my  last  breath;  to  continue  it, 
to  make  it  go  on  till  the  earth  falls  into  the 
sun,  or  a  billion  times  longer,  would  be  with¬ 
out  any  value,  as  that  kind  of  life  which  is 
nothing  but  the  mechanical  occurrence  of  phy¬ 
siological  and  psychological  phenomena  has 
as  such  no  ultimate  value  for  me  or  for  you 
or  for  anyone  at  any  time  .  But  my  real  life 
as  a  system  of  interrelated  will-attitudes  has 
nothing  before  or  after,  because  it  is  beyond 
time.  It  is  independent  of  birth  and  death, 
because  it  cannot  be  related  to  the  biological 
events ;  it  is  born  and  will  not  die ;  it  is  immor¬ 
tal;  all  possible  thinkable  time  is  enclosed  in 
it ;  it  is  eternal.” 

Deeper  than  philosophy  even  is  the  aggre- 


ON  IMMORTALITY 


41 


gate  force  of  human  desire,  expectancy,  and 
longing,  which  very  desire  is  prophetic. 
There  is  a  validity  of  human  instinct.  There 
is  a  value,  legitimacy  in  the  Poet’s  vision,  in 
the  realm  of  imagination, — as  legitimate  as 
the  thinking  of  the  scientist.  The  calm  trust, 
too,  with  which  the  good  man  faces  death 
bears  conviction.  There  is  no  boast;  there 
may  be  no  visions;  there  may  be  even  a  dread 
of  change,  a  longing  for  physical  life,  but 
there  is  a  calm  trust  born  of  conviction.  These 
are  all  as  legitimate  as  the  province  of  num¬ 
bers  or  the  realm  of  scientific  occurrence.  He 
who  is  so  widely  versed  in  his  own  field  as  to 
have  described  its  borders,  says  naught 
against  worlds  into  which  his  own  studies 
have  not  taken  him.  At  most  he  is  silent. 

All  human  effort  points  to  immortality.  Im¬ 
mortality  is  essential  to  the  complete  under¬ 
standing  of  human  life;  the  moral  order  of 
the  universe  demands  it.  In  every  age  live  a 
few  prophetic  spirits,  yet  even  these  cannot 


42  A  WORKING  BASIS 

fully  impart  themselves.  Coleridge  could  not 
recall  his  verses :  Beethoven  could  not  express 
the  harmonies  he  had  heard.  Indeed  we  all 
see  and  feel  what  we  can  never  realize  in  this 
world;  we  have  our  prophetic  moments,  high 
levels  on  which  we  here  live  only  as  transients. 
Hopes  and  aspirations  unrealized  here,  and 
choice  spirits  cut  off  before  their  time  must 
find  their  fullest  meaning  in  the  Hereafter. 

Science  leaves  us  a  hopeful  suggestion;  his¬ 
tory  stoutly  affirms;  philosophy  declares  its 
reasonableness,  and  ethics  the  necessity  of  a 
satisfaction  for  this  craving — the  reality  of 
immortality. 

Nor  is  it  a  new  state  to  be  entered  into  in 
connection  with  that  phenomenon  called  phy¬ 
sical  death.  He  who  is  in  the  way  is  as  im¬ 
mortal  now  as  any  change  could  make  him. 
Eternal  life  may  begin  here,  and  here  may  be 
only  the  forecourt  of  hereafter. 


ON  CONSCIENCE 


'^The  Spirit  of  Man  is  the  lamp  of  Yahweh, 
Searching  all  the  chambers  of  the  SoulJ^ 

— Psalms. 


^7  have  considered  my  ways 
And  turned  unto  Thy  testimonies'' 

— Proverbs. 


I  r 


ON  CONSCIENCE 


These  words  of  the  Sage,  “Lamp 
of  Yahweh,”  have  in  the  popular 
mind  become  identified  with  the 
conscience  of  man.  Conscience  has 
come  to  be  a  tangible  somewhat  serving  as  a 
sort  of  oracle  wherefrom  responses  may  be 
elicited  as  to  the  ordering  of  life.  The  lan¬ 
guage,  an  illustration  merely,  has  been  mis¬ 
taken  for  a  definition.  Yet  man  is  an  integer. 
The  old  terms,  intellect,  sensibilities,  will,  are 
no  longer  to  be  tolerated  even  as  fictions.  And 
when  terms  are  mistaken  for  verities  confu¬ 
sion  reigns. 

The  word  “Conscience”  bears  on  the  face 
of  it  the  true  meaning.  There  is  implied  a 
knowledge  of  one’s  self,  a  sense  of  one’s  mor¬ 
al  whereabouts.  In  practical  wise  Conscience 
is  not  an  entity  but  a  mode  of  action.  Con¬ 
sidered  as  a  mode  of  conduct,  three  steps  seem 

45 


46  A  WORKING  BASIS 

determinable, — judgment,  decision,  action. 

A  prerequisite  to  moral  action  is  a  judg¬ 
ment,  and  prerequisite  to  judgment  is  knowl¬ 
edge.  A  moral  act  based  on  a  judgment  at¬ 
tained  through  incorrect  information  must  of 
necessity  be  faulty  however  pure  the  intent. 
Consequences  unforseen,  erroneous  conclu¬ 
sions  may  easily  work  harm.  Narrow  vision, 
prejudice,  indiscretion,  impulsiveness,  even 
passion  may  distort  judgment.  Only  evil  can 
result.  The  fault  here  is  not  moral :  it  is  of 
the  intellect.  However,  it  is  none  the  less  a 
fault,  and  as  such  injurious.  Conscience,  what¬ 
ever  else  it  may  be,  is  moral  and  not  culpable 
for  intellectual  failings.  The  step  just  de¬ 
scribed  is  not  moral,  hence  the  issue  is  not 
with  conscience. 

Again,  a  judgment  without  a  decision  is  at 
best  a  passive  thing.  Decision  may  rest  on 
one  or  more  of  several  grounds,  as  personal 
advantage,  sense  of  justice,  regard  for  others. 
We  verge  here  toward  the  moral  rather  than 


ON  CONSCIENCE 


47 


toward  the  intellectual.  Decision  is  the  pow¬ 
er  to  choose  an  alternative,  to  adopt  a  mode 
of  action.  If,  however,  the  will  be  to  adopt 
a  procedure  seemingly  right  but  based  on  evi¬ 
dence  actually  insufficient  or  erroneous,  harm 
may  result,  but  there  can  be  no  culpability,  for 
culpability  implies  wilful  rejection  of  a  right 
and  acceptance  of  a  motive  known  to  be 
wrong,  and  the  motive  here  is  presumably 
right. 

Further,  an  action  is  a  realized  decision 
and  involves  determination  and  the  use  of  en¬ 
ergy.  But  culpability  does  not  rest  here :  the 
moral  phase  rests  on  the  underlying  decision 
determining  the  action.  Underlying  infor¬ 
mation  may  be  wrong,  action  may  unwittingly 
be  ill-timed,  but  culpability  comes  in  the  ren¬ 
dering  of  a  wrong  decision  against  available 
knowledge  and  wisdom.  Conscience,  finally, 
is  not  an  entity,  nor  anything  separate.  It 
rests  if  correct  on  information,  the  intellect¬ 
ual;  on  decision,  the  will;  and  on  purity  of 


48 


A  WORKING  BASIS 


motive,  the  moral  nature.  And  these  three 
are  themselves  not  separate  and  apart  but 
phases. 

Conscience  is  the  result  of  long  growth  and 
development,  a  matter  of  evolution.  Once, 
long  ago,  there  was  no  established  body  of 
ethics,  no  standards  of  procedure.  Each  did 
what  was  right  in  his  own  eyes :  was  a  law  to 
himself.  Gradually  there  arose  a  settled  cus¬ 
tom.  A  consensus  of  opinion  was  evolved, 
and  along  lines  of  conduct  individuals  were 
guided,  or  at  least  influenced,  by  precedent. 
In  time  society  came  to  have  an  ethical  code. 
Here  is  the  germ  of  public  opinion,  of  public 
conscience.  To  this  each  generation  in  turn 
adds  an  increment  to  the  common  ethical  com 
sciousness. 

To  each  generation  come  new  problems, 
new  situations,  occasions  for  new  judgments. 
Resting  on  what  has  been  handed  down  by 
those  who  have  gone  before,  each  generation 
works  out  current  problems,  forms  new  de- 


ON  CONSCIENCE 


49 


terminations,  and  in  turn  hands  on  its  stand¬ 
ards  to  succeeding  times.  As  in  nature  so  in 
morals  there  are  reversals  to  earlier  types  or 
forms,  but  the  trend  is  in  general  forward. 

The  too  widely  prevalent  popular  notion 
of  conscience  traces  back  ultimately  to  a  de¬ 
sire  to  be  relieved  of  personal  moral  responsi¬ 
bility,  to  cast  lots,  to  have  the  word  of  an  ora¬ 
cle,  to  hear  a  “do  this”  or  “thou  shalt  not.” 
The  church  once  divided  on  the  question  of 
human  infallibility.  Those  who  protested 
sought  refuge  in  an  appeal  to  an  infallible 
book.  Today  there  are  many  and  diverse 
opinions,  but  we,  like  children,  still  wish  to 
be  led. 

Nor  has  discussion  left  us  empty-handed. 
Conscience  though  not  a  separate  entity  is  still 
real — it  is  an  eternal  alertness.  There  are 
no  compartments,  the  mind  is  a  unit,  person¬ 
ality  is  an  integer.  When  comes  the  time  of 
decision,  the  process  is  of  a  single,  unitary 
agent — gathering  and  weighing  information; 


50 


A  WORKING  BASIS 


determinating  the  wiser,  safer  policy;  and 
choosing — and  the  last  stage  marks  the  cli¬ 
max  while  resting  upon  the  other  two.  And 
yet  all  three  are  but  phases  of  one,  the  per¬ 
son,  the  self.  On  this  last  as  the  only  existent 
factor  in  the  problem  must  rest  the  moral  re¬ 
sponsibility. 


ON  THE  REASONABLENESS  OF 

PRAYER 


There  he  problems  in  Heaven  and  in 
earth  undreamed  of  in  your  philosophy ,  Ho¬ 
ratio  T  — Shakespeare. 

''Ye  ask,  and  receive  not,  because  ye  ask 

amiss,  that  ye  may  spend  it  in  your  pleasuresJ^ 

— Letter  of  James. 

'The  Mount  of  Transfiguration  is  the 
place  of  prayer :  the  object  of  prayer  is  prepa¬ 
ration  for  service! 

"Ein  einziger,  dankbarer  Gedanke  gen 
Himmel  ist  das  volkommenste  GebetH 

— Lessing. 


ON  THE  REASONABLENESS  OF 

PRAYER 


HOW  can  prayer  change  the  proce¬ 
dure  of  irrevocable  law?  How 
can  the  petition  of  an  individual 
alter  the  destiny  of  society?  Why 
should  man  pray  to  a  God  who  knows  better 
than  we,  what  to  give,  and  who  is  even  more 

ready  to  give  than  we  to  ask? 

It  is  possible,  by  the  way,  to  have  too  ex¬ 
alted  a  conception  of  Law.  Too  apt  are  we 
to  endow  a  word  with  arms,  legs,  brain,  and 
breath  of  life  and  to  own  it  as  our  master. 
Truth  is  that  what  we  have  termed  Law  has 
no  existence  whatever,  never  caused  anything 
nor  wrought  any  work,  and  that  it  outdoes 
Proteus  in  variability.  A  law  is  simply  a 
description,  an  expression  of  our  experience 
up  to  date,  the  summing  up  of  our  observa¬ 
tion  of  some  particular  class  or  group  of 

53 


54 


A  WORKING  BASIS 


phenomena.  To-morrow  may  add  to  the 
number  of  phenomena  or  complications  to  the 
process.  Thus  Evolution  has  been  modified 
by  Mutation,  and  the  history  of  this  great 
hypothesis  has  marked  by  its  changes  the  de¬ 
velopment  of  scientific  thinking  in  the  field  of 
biological  science. 

It  is  possible  we  miss  the  true  significance 
of  prayer.  To  one,  prayer  is  a  means  of  prying 
open  the  windows  of  heaven;  to  another,  a 
period  of  ecstasy;  to  another,  the  enrichment 
of  the  supplicant  by  putting  him  en  rapport 
with  the  object  of  his  adoration.  In  the  form 
Jesus  taught  his  disciples  there  is  clearly  none 
of  the  first;  the  prayer  does  not  ascend  to  the 
heights  of  the  second;  and  there  is  a  this- 
worldness  about  it  that  all  but  excludes  it 
from  the  third: 

1 —  ^Adoration  and  thanksgiving. 

2 —  Divine  supremacy. 

3 —  Daily  needs. 

4 —  F  o  rgi  veness. 


REASONABLENESS  OF  PRAYER  55 


5 — Deliverance. 

It  is  clear  that  the  established  order  of  phe¬ 
nomena  which  we  call  law  cannot  be  swerved, 
for  the  mind  that  guides  the  world  shaped  al¬ 
so  the  lines  along  which  all  things  move.  To 
swerve  might  involve  catastrophe.  What  may 
seem  the  suspension  of  law  is  rather  a  remind¬ 
er  that  what  we  had  come  to  regard  as  a  law 
was  founded  on  too  narrow  observation.  We 
had  apprehended  but  not  comprehended.  Ad¬ 
ditional  embarrassment  arises  when  men 
equally  sincere  seek  conflicting  solutions. 
Thus  how  could  even  infinite  wisdom  answer 
the  petitions  that  went  up  from  North  and 
South  for  the  outcome  of  the  Civil  War? 
Lincoln  well  said  that  neither  prayer  was 
fully  answered  and  that  the  outcome  was  not 
entirely  the  one  sought  by  any.  We  have 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  individual  sought 
the  destinies  of  the  many.  Dwarfed  by  sel¬ 
fish  desire,  distorted  by  our  partial  view-point, 
our  prayers,  many  of  them,  would  wreck  the 


A  WORKING  BASIS 


56 

world  instead  of  promoting  it.  The  broad 
view  of  the  game  is  not  the  one  gained  by  the 
small  boy  looking  through  a  hole  in  the  fence. 

From  the  foothills  of  finity  there  is  no 
chance  of  viewing  the  broad  vistas  to  be  seen 
from  the  mountain-peaks  of  the  Infinite.  All 
our  notions  of  time,  space,  before  and  after, 
heights  and  depths,  and  the  like,  are  purely 
accidentals  of  our  finite  existence,  and  to  pro¬ 
ject  them  upon  our  conceptions  of  God  and 
his  Universe  is  like  the  thinking  of  the  He¬ 
brew  sage  who  conceived  God  as  resting  with 
the  coming  of  night  or  walking  abroad  in  the 
cool  of  the  day  or  regretting  action  already 
taken. 

There  is  a  reflex  action  in  prayer  that  af¬ 
fects  the  subject  in  quite  another  way.  We 
find  a  suggestion  in  the  prayer  that  Jesus 
taught.  A  man’s  wealth  rests  not  in  the 
abundance  of  his  goods  but  in  the  state  of 
his  mind.  Contentment  is  more  than  wealth : 
enough  more  than  abundance.  Prayer  places 


REASONABLENESS  OF  PRAYER  57 


the  suppliant  en  rapport  with  the  divine  and 
makes  his  will  one  and  at  one  with  God.  This 
is  not  Stoicism:  it  does  not  endure,  it  exalts 
and  transforms.  It  helped  the  Apostle  to 
say  that  “in  whatever  state  he  found  himself, 
therewith  he  could  be  content.”  Longing  to 
be  with  his  churches  he  could  yet  make  his 
misfortune  the  means  for  spreading  the  mes¬ 
sage  to  the  Gentiles. 

This  does  not  restrict  prayer:  it  rather 
purifies.  It  does  not  rebuke  zeal  but  rather 
heightens  judgment.  The  ship  enters  the 
lock.  The  passenger  on  deck  sees  about  him 
only  the  towering  walls  that  shut  him  in.  The 
boiling  waters  fill  the  chasm,  the  ship  rises 
within  its  walls  and  the  passenger  gladly  sees 
things  anew  from  a  higher  standpoint  and 
with  enlarged  horizon.  The  man  with  his 
elevation  has  been  put  in  touch  with  a  new 
world.  Chastened  prayer,  the  outpouring  of 
soul-life  born  of  experience,  whether  spoken 
or  unexpressed,  is,  whatever  else  it  may  be, 


58 


A  WORKING  BASIS 


the  exaltation  of  man  till  he  is  in  touch  with 
the  Eternal.  It  took  Israel  long  to  realize 
that  Yahweh  did  not  dwell  on  Zion,  that  the 
altar  with  its  burden  of  victims  was  not  the 
sine  qua  non  of  acceptable  worship,  that  the 
litany  of  robed  priests  was  not  essential.  The 
Christian  church  has  never  quite  gotten  away 
from  the  feeling  that  certain  forms  and  sym¬ 
bols  and  signs  were  the  only  receptacles  wor¬ 
thy  to  contain  the  precious  word.  Why  is  not 
the  holy  life,  the  pure  thought,  the  noble  as¬ 
piration,  or  the  unselfish  deed  a  prayer?  And 
why  may  not  life  throughout  be  a  season  of 
prayer,  and  the  brief  intervals  we  are  wont 
to  call  prayer  times  rather  of  formal  com¬ 
munion  unifying  with  the  will  of  God  that  of 
the  worshipper.  But  can  petition  change  the 
established  order?  There  is  indubitable  se¬ 
quence  and  sequacity  in  the  universe  about  us. 
Yet  to  limit  divine  action  to  a  single  unchange¬ 
able  procedure  is  to  put  bounds  to  infinity. 
Many  things  to  my  mind  the  inevitable  and 


REASONABLENESS  OF  PRAYER  59 


the  only  are  to  a  keener  intellect  but  one 
among  many.  Where  to  my  untutored  vision 
no  way  appears,  the  trained  eye  sees  a  dozen 
paths.  The  skilled  woodman  threads  his  way 
through  trackless  forests  and  trails  invisible. 
Logical  thinking  leads  us  to  infinity :  to  limit 
infinity  only  contradicts  our  judgment. 

The  real  error  is  not  one  of  philosophy  but 
of  ethics.  Whence  misfortune?  Adversity 
and  suffering  often  come  only  because  of  vio¬ 
lation  of  some  sequence  of  cause  and  effect. 
Continuous  gluttony  and  dissipation  lead  to 
disease  and  debility.  God  might  provide  an¬ 
other  way  out,  but  why  should  he?  We  ought 
to  pray  rather  that  we  be  led  from  evil  doing 
than  to  be  protected  from  its  consequences. 

Recognizing  Divine  power  and  the  injus¬ 
tice  of  its  use  in  any  but  an  impartial  way  in 
answer  to  short-sighted  human  petition,  we 
see  the  chief  end  of  prayer  in  the  rendering 
of  man’s  will  one  with  God,  and  in  the  mould¬ 
ing  of  man’s  conduct,  rather  than  in  satisfying 
his  desires. 


f 


f 


/ 


> 


a, 


• 


ON  THE  SEAT  OF  AUTHORITY  IN 

RELIGION 


‘‘The  Spirit  Beareth  Witness.” 

— Paul. 


ON  THE  SEAT  OF  AUTHORITY  IN 

RELIGION 


The  problem  in  hand  must  be  clear¬ 
ly  determined  before  being  ex¬ 
plored.  Within  what  bounds  does 
the  question  lie,  and  along  what 
lines  are  we  to  move  in  its  solution?  That 
religion  is  a  factor  in  our  thinking  life  seems 
evident,  and  the  fact  that  prejudice,  hatred, 
war,  and  persecution  have  been  involved  in 
its  behalf,  though  directed  by  wrong  motives, 
urges  its  reality.  As  to  where  we  are  to  look 
for  this  “Seat  of  Authority”  in  religion,  the 
warrant  for  the  religious  sentiment,  there  is 
room  for  debate. 

We  are  traversing  here  an  unknown  land : 
the  best  we  can  do  is  by  inference,  following 
our  best  judgment.  What  is  invisible  we  must 
undertake  to  state  in  terms  of  the  visible. 
What  we  seek  is  by  its  nature  unknowable 

63 


64 


A  WORKING  BASIS 


save  by  inference.  We  do  not  see,  we  reason 
to  conclusions. 

Human  conduct  may  be  viewed  from  with¬ 
out,  inductively.  Actions  may  be  studied  with 
reference  to  their  results  or  consequences — 
those  that  eventuate  well  and  those  that  re¬ 
sult  ill.  Further,  the  study  on  this  side  may 
be  carried  on  historically,  and  present  action 
may  be  guided  by  experience,  experience  of 
ourselves  and  of  others.  This  is  good  but 
not  sufficient.  It  may  insure  against  relapse 
but  cannot  assure  progress.  There  must  have 
been  a  primary  incentive,  an  original  impulse 
to  right  action  and  thought.  Whence  and 
what  this  initiative?  When  attained,  it  is 
what  we  seek,  the  warrant  for  the  religious 
impulse.  We  must  distinguish  here  between 
the  discernment  of  this  incentive  and  its  de¬ 
termination  as  right  or  wrong.  The  latter 
concerns  our  thought  of  conscience :  the  form¬ 
er  concerns  us  here. 

Some  have  sought  this  principle  in  institu- 


AUTHORITY  IN  RELIGION  65 


tions,  creeds,  and  in  collections  of  sacred  writ¬ 
ings.  These  attest  the  fact;  are  they  cause  or 
result?  The  wavering  of  the  mercury  be¬ 
speaks  a  varying  temperature,  but  does  not 
cause  it.  In  a  sense  there  is  light  though  no 
eye  were  to  see  it.  Even  if  there  were  no  list¬ 
ening  ear,  the  tree  falling  would  produce 
sound,  if  sound  be  expressed  in  terms  of  air 
waves.  But  for  eye  and  ear,  if  absent,  there 
could  not  be  either.  Among  all  peoples  there 
has  been  what  may  uncritically  be  termed  re¬ 
ligious  instinct.  This  has  found  concrete  ex¬ 
pressions,  but  these  expressions,  whether  sac¬ 
rifice  or  cathedral  service,  simple  credo  or 
elaborate  body  of  literature,  are  fruit  rather 
than  root:  they  constitute  a  criterion  of  judg¬ 
ment  and,  collectively,  a  standard  of  relative 
merit  among  alternative  or  competing  sys¬ 
tems.  We  do  not  find  in  them,  however,  the 
raison  d’etre,  the  “Seat  of  Authority  in  Re¬ 
ligion.” 

We  leave  the  outer  world,  then,  satisfied  as 


66 


A  WORKING  BASIS 


to  the  reality  of  what  we  are  seeking,  though 
fully  aware  that  it  is  not  something  possessed 
of  material  existence.  The  much  sought  prin¬ 
ciple  cometh  not  by  observation,  it  is  within. 
Having  gotten  away  from  ideas  of  utility  and 
conscience,  and  having  determined  on  some 
principle  within,  we  are  left  to  set  bounds  to 
this  our  new  field  of  search.  Reason  fails  us 
as  an  avenue  of  approach,  save  in  the  exer¬ 
cise  of  judgment  as  to  the  sanity  of  our  pro¬ 
cedure.  We  must  enter  the  world  of  conjec¬ 
ture,  or  inference,  proceeding  not  by  a  visible 
highway,  but,  as  the  sailor  by  the  compass,  by 
taking  our  bearings  and  making  for  a  goal  of 
whose  existence  we  feel  certain.  And  here  we 
may  observe  that  there  is  no  conflict  between 
reason  and  faith.  These  are  not  separate  en¬ 
tities  but  phases  of  activity.  Faith  is  loyalty 
to  the  best  that  is  in  us.  It  impels  us  to  action 
in  the  direction  given  us  by  our  best  judgment. 
To  walk  toward  a  visible  object  is  an  act  of 
faith  in  that  it  shows  confidence  in  our  senses. 


AUTHORITY  IN  RELIGION  67 


7'o  set  out  for  a  goal  beyond  our  vision  in¬ 
volves  a  larger  exercise  of  faith  or  confidence. 
To  set  out  to  explore  a  world  so  thoroughly 
unknown  and  intangible  as  that  of  pure 
thought,  is  a  sublime  act  of  confidence,  as 
much  above  the  former  as  the  faith  of  Co¬ 
lumbus  was  greater  than  that  of  the  mariner 
today  with  proved  chart  to  hand.  It  is  rea¬ 
son  that  weighs  pros  and  cons  and  marks  the 
course.  Faith  impels  man  to  action  along  the 
line  thus  laid  down.  Abraham  as  an  act  of 
faith  sojourned  in  the  land  of  promise.  The 
process  of  reasoning  whereby  he  became  an 
emigrant  is  not  related  in  the  Bible  story. 

In  its  own  field,  then,  faith  is  not  only  le¬ 
gitimate,  it  is  absolutely  indispensable.  With¬ 
out  faith  in  some  form  the  wheels  of  trade 
stop,  the  activities  of  life  cease,  and  the  pro¬ 
cesses  of  the  thought  life  are  at  an  end.  Yet 
there  are  perils  in  the  exercise  of  faith.  There 
is  danger,  first  of  all,  from  mysticism,  unclear 
thinking.  In  one  age  and  another  Mystics 


68 


A  WORKING  BASIS 


have  helped  progress.  Despite  seeming  hazi¬ 
ness,  though  they  may  have  seen  but  dimly, 
these  pioneers  were  groping  after  something. 
Mysticism  often  has  been  a  just  recognition 
of  the  heart-life  as  over  against  barren 
domination  of  brain.  But  introspection, 
scrutiny  of  one’s  self,  like  one’s  intently 
gazing  on  some  optical  illusion,  is 
apt  to  lose  one  in  a  hopeless  maze. 
Nor  can  the  bystander  be  dogmatic  on  the 
matter  of  personal  experience.  What  he  may 
not  in  any  way  perceive,  as,  for  example,  a 
coin  in  the  closed  hand,  the  possessor  may  be 
fully  and  rightly  conscious  of.  The  witness 
of  the  Spirit,  that  is  the  conviction  of  oneness 
with  God,  is  not  something  tangible,  never¬ 
theless  it  is  a  valid  argument,  not  to  be  denied 
the  holder  so  far  as  it  concerns  his  own  indi¬ 
vidual  weal. 

The  sum  total  of  the  world’s  consciousness 
here  constitutes  a  valid  argument  for  the  prin¬ 
ciple  in  question.  The  world  as  a  whole  is 


AUTHORITY  IN  RELIGION  69 


not  long  deceived.  Hunger  implies  food: 
hunger  is  for  a  purpose,  and  even  famine  does 
not  invalidate  the  argument.  The  religious 
impulse  is  for  a  purpose,  and  no  religion  but 
has  in  it,  despite  any  crudeness,  the  germ  of 
right.  Religions  have  ultimately  triumphed, 
as  history  attests,  by  virtue  of  superior  merit 
in  themselves  and  by  the  sincere  devotion  of 
their  votaries. 

Other  evidence  is  cumulative,  and  on  the 
principle  of  the  summation  of  stimuli  leads  to 
sense  of  certainty.  It  is  personal  conviction, 
figuratively  spoken  of  as  a  “voice  within,”  an 
attitude  of  our  personality  toward  the  matter 
in  question  that  constitutes  our  final  court  of 
appeal,  which  though  not  independent  from, 
yet  constitutes,  as  the  key-stone  in  the  arch, 
the  final  and  convincing  proof. 

The  abiding  self!  Science  teaches  us  of 
constant  change  that  spares  naught.  Yet,  de¬ 
spite  this  accepted  fact,  we  feel  a  sense  of 
sameness  as  over  against  all  possibilities  of 


70 


A  WORKING  BASIS 


otherness — a  sameness  continuous  through  all. 
This  we  accept  in  all  the  pursuits  of  life  and 
find  that  it  works,  that  results  follow.  And 
in  this  same  self  abides  that  conviction  that 
compels  recognition  though  admitting  the 
possibility  of  denial.  The  working  basis 
changes :  the  working  self  abides. 


ON  THE  PERSON  OF  CHRIST 


^^Lord,  to  whom  shall  we  go?  thou  hast 
the  words  of  eternal  life^ 

Until  I  find  a  safer  guide,  a  higher  ideal 
concretely  expressed,  a  life  resting  more  fully 
on  its  merits,  a  force  more  vital  in  history,  a 
teaching  more  simple  and  so  more  universal  in 
its  scope — until  I  find  all  this  I  shall  follow 
the  Nazarene. 


ON  THE  PERSON  OF  CHRIST 


HE  fundamental  problem  in  the 
Christian’s  thinking  may  be 
summed  up  in  the  query  as  to  the 
person  of  Christ.  The  difficulty 


lies  in  the  fact  that  the  investigation  crosses 
two  worlds.  Just  as  we  are  well  on  our  way 
we  are  abruptly  halted  by  the  bars  of  the 
finite.  By  the  old  system  of  deductive  reasoning 
we  started — by  assuming — with  a  supernat¬ 
ural  Being,  duly  personified  and  capitalized, 
which  we  accepted  wholly  on  faith.  This  ma¬ 
jor  premise  having  been  granted  all  else  fol¬ 
lowed.  The  difficulty  here  is  that  we  assume 
what  we  set  out  to  prove,  and  to  a  person  not 
already  convinced  conviction  does  not  neces¬ 
sarily  follow. 

The  truth  is,  the  implications  of  the  prob¬ 
lem  pass  beyond  finite  comprehension.  We 
stand  within  the  circle  without  and  beyond 


73 


74 


A  WORKING  BASIS 


which  extends  the  mysteries  of  the  unfath¬ 
omed  world.  From  time  to  time  the  horizon 
recedes  before  some  new  discovery,  neverthe¬ 
less  there  is  still  the  unknown  world  which 
like  the  ancient  ocean-stream  hems  in  all 
known  lands  and  for  the  present  limits  dis¬ 
covery.  We  can  examine,  collate,  and  arrive 
at  conclusions.  This  is  the  scientific  proce¬ 
dure,  and  only  so  can  we  here  come  to  knowl¬ 
edge. 

The  real  value  in  this  matter  is  not  doctri¬ 
nal,  but  ethical  and  religious.  The  Christian 
world  went  to  war  for  a  diphthong,  but 
whether  ^^homoios^^  or  ‘^homoiousios/^  can 
never  be  determined  by  finite  minds  nor  does 
it  matter  whether  it  be  so  determined.  As  a 
matter  of  philosophical  speculation  it  is  well 
worth  all  the  effort  it  costs  to  struggle  with 
these  problems.  As  a  matter  affecting  the 
practical  conduct  of  life  these  matters  in  no 
way  concern  us.  Following  the  manner  of 
the  scientist,  in  questions  baffling  solution  we 


ON  THE  PERSON  OF  CHRIST  75 


simply  collect  our  unsolved  puzzles  for  the 
time  when  a  chance  ray  of  light  may  point 
the  way.  We  do  not  become  pessimistic,  nor 
do  we  give  up  the  search,  nor  do  we  lose  hold 
on  faith  in  the  ultimate  outcome. 

For  practical  purposes  it  is  not  what  pre¬ 
ceded  the  advent  of  the  Christ  that  counts, 
but  what  followed  in  its  wake.  Questions  of 
preexistence,  procession,  priority  are  good  for 
speculation.  Signs  and  wonders  are  not 
unique  to  Christianity  nor  did  Jesus  himself 
lay  great  stress  on  them.  It  is  the  ethical  and 
religious  content  of  Jesus’  teaching  that  gives 
great  and  true  significance.  The  setting  is 
temporal,  the  symbolism  belongs  to  a  past 
age  and  to  a  people  long  since  removed  from 
their  ancient  conditions, — the  husk  is  acci¬ 
dental,  the  truth  set  forth  is  eternal.  The 
environment  compels  us  not  only  to  orient 
our  thoughts :  we  must  also  Orientalize  our¬ 
selves  if  we  would  understand  the  message 
aright.  Thus  wisely  acted  the  earliest  mis- 


76 


A  WORKING  BASIS 


sionaries  to  the  West  when  they  changed  the 
figure  from  the  sacrificial  lamb  to  that  of  Lo¬ 
gos,  a  shibboleth  in  the  Greek  philosophy  of 
the  time. 

Of  the  Jesus  of  history  we  have  valid  rec¬ 
ords,  such  as  could  be  accepted  by  critical 
thinking  apropos  of  other  historical  charac¬ 
ters,  and  in  the  life  of  the  early  church  wit¬ 
nesses  multiply  rapidly.  The  earliest  evidence 
is  that  of  Paul.  These  letters  were  followed 
by  the  three  so-called  Synoptic  Gospels,  and 
by  the  historical  book  of  Acts  which  has  no 
footing  except  in  the  fact  of  Jesus’  life  and 
work.  Later  followed  the  fourth  Gospel,  a 
philosophical  and  interpretative  rather  than 
a  historical  treatise.  All  these  documents  so 
far  from  being  formal  apologetics  or  intend¬ 
ed  for  the  general  public,  are  strictly  “inter 
nos”  compositions  for  those  already  within 
the  faith.  This  fact  of  their  being  uncon¬ 
scious  historical  material  adds  to  their  essen¬ 
tial  value  in  these  later  times. 


ON  THE  PERSON  OF  CHRIST  77 


Christianity  abides  by  virtue  of  what  hap¬ 
pened  after  rather  than  from  what  preceded 
the  event.  The  stories  of  the  last  forty  days 
bear  witness  to  some  more  than  ordinary  ex¬ 
perience,  an  experience,  indeed,  that  trans¬ 
formed  a  band  of  trembling  fugitives  into  a 
conquering  force.  Christianity  enjoyed  no  ad¬ 
vantages  under  the  empire.  Greek  religion, 
Greek  philosophy,  and  the  Oriental  cults  were 
all  opposed  to  Christianity.  The  outlook  for 
the  followers  of  Mithras  was  for  a  time 
brighter  than  for  the  disciples  of  the  Naza- 
rene.  The  Galilean  won  not  by  reason  of  any 
interference  human  or  divine  but  by  force  of 
his  superior  merit.  Religions  have  ever  gone 
down  before  higher  types.  The  survival  of 
the  fittest  holds  here  as  elsewhere.  The  his¬ 
tory  of  Christianity,  despite  the  wrongs  done 
in  its  name,  is  its  great  apologetic.  Chris¬ 
tianity  knows  no  national  boundaries,  nor  is  it 
responsible  for  importation  of  vices  into 
heathen  lands  though  the  offenders  may  have 


78  A  WORKING  BASIS 

been  citizens  in  Christian  countries. 

The  idea  of  immortality  leads  to  the  con¬ 
cluding  question — Jesus  as  the  Christ.  Of 
the  historic  Jesus  we  are  assured  by  a  reason¬ 
able  confidence  in  reliable  records.  Nor  are 
we  entitled  by  reason  of  the  supreme  import¬ 
ance  of  the  matter  to  look  for  unusual  and 
overwhelming  evidence.  Rather,  it  behooves 
us  to  give  more  earnest  heed  to  the  testimony 
now  available.  The  question  of  the  risen 
Christ  is  different.  The  story  is  told  in 
Oriental,  first  century-style  whose  seeming 
crudities  are  the  earmarks  of  its  historicity. 
The  fact  remains.  Again,  Christianity  en¬ 
tered  a  field  wholly  occupied,  from  mortal 
point  of  view  enjoyed  no  favor  or  prestige, 
was  rivaled  by  powerful  and  popular  cults, 
and  on  its  merit  only,  won  its  recognition.  In 
the  same  way  Christianity  has  held  its  own — 
because  its  basis  is  the  most  democratic,  its 
procedure  is  the  most  simple,  its  ethics  the 
most  pure.  The  Galilean  has  won  on  his 


ON  THE  PERSON  OF  CHRIST  79 


merit.  It  is  not  to  prophecy  we  turn,  for 
what  happened  far  transcends  any  prediction. 
Nor  is  it  to  miracle,  for  miracles  are  by  no 
means  peculiar  to  Christian  origins,  indeed 
for  spectacular  effect  the  miracles  of  the  Gos¬ 
pels  seem  tame  in  comparison.  Christianity 
has  transformed  history,  and  repeated  its 
wonderful  work  in  millions  of  hearts  and 
lives.  Herein  lies  the  marvel  to  be  explained. 
Men  are  Christian  not  by  peoples,  countries, 
or  groups,  but  by  individuals.  Christianity 
sent  the  missionary.  The  barrel  of  grog 
aboard  the  same  steamer  was  sent  by  some 
other  agency.  Lands  nominally  Christian 
have  not  given  greater  sins  to  India,  China, 
or  Africa :  they  have  added  to  them.  These 
crimes  are  chargeable  not  to  Christianity  but 
to  men  who  in  Christian  lands  yet  denied  the 
Christian  code.  And  in  judging  the  sins  of 
the  past  we  must  ever  keep  in  mind  contem¬ 
porary  standards  of  mortals  and  recognize  in 
our  thinking  the  evolution  of  an  ethical  code. 


8o 


A  WORKING  BASIS 


Christ  is  not  an  ancient  form  to  shape  or  mis¬ 
shape  our  reason.  We  acknowledge  Him 
as  Master  and  follow  Him  for  His  merit  and 
achievement. 


ON  PROGRESSIVE  REVELATION 


the  old  lamps  are  dim  and  pale, 

The  stars  are  shining  still; 

If  shadows  gather  in  the  vale, 

The  sun  is  on  the  hill. 

Truth  still  abides,  God  is  not  dead. 

And  though  old  views  depart, 

A  loftier  temple  domes  our  head, 

A  larger  hope  our  heart!’ 

^‘Beyond  the  printed  page  we  seek  Thee, 
Lord.” 


/ 


i  ■; 

.  i' 


■  ■  s 

,i 


\ 


1 


.  1  ,  ‘  '  ■>> 
■.s:,'^i-vi4 


I  -T  . 


ON  PROGRESSIVE  REVELATION 
HE  reply  of  Jesus  to  his  disciples, 


“I  have  yet  many  things  to  say  un¬ 
to  you,  but  ye  cannot  bear  them 


now,”  attests  a  great  truth.  Wheth¬ 
er  to  nation  or  to  individual,  truth  comes 
slowly.  This  is  necessarily  so,  not  that  truth 
is  changeable  but  because  mind  must  undergo 
a  gradual  accommodation  to  fit  itself  for  cap¬ 
able  recipiency  of  truth. 

The  topic  in  question  is  larger  than  is  al¬ 
lowed  by  the  books.  It  is  not  a  problem  of 
Holy  Scripture  merely,  but  one  that  touches 
our  intellectual  and  spiritual  life  on  every 
side.  As  in  other  fields  so  in  this,  quarrels  are 
largely  over  words  rather  than  things.  We 
may  begin  with  Archbishop  Trench’s  defini¬ 
tion:  “God’s  revelation  of  Himself  is  a  draw¬ 
ing  back  of  the  veil  or  curtain  which  con¬ 
cealed  Him  from  man;  not  man  finding  out 


84 


A  WORKING  BASIS 


God,  but  God  discovering  Himself  to  man.” 

Though  a  familiar  phrasing,  this  statement 
is  in  a  measure  true  and  yet  incomplete.  Truth 
is  not  attained  by  the  downward  bending  of 
realities,  but  by  the  elevation  of  the  recipient. 
We  need  not  become  Pantheists  to  accept  the 
doctrine  of  Divine  Immanence  and  to  see  in 
every  bush  and  stone  and  brook,  in  the  lives 
and  works  of  our  fellows,  as  well  as  in  a  par¬ 
ticular  body  of  writings,  traces  of  the  Infinite. 
We  come  to  revelation  by  the  unfolding  of 
the  mind :  faith  is  the  acceptance  of  and  com¬ 
pliance  with  the  light  vouchsafed  us,  the  ac¬ 
ceptance  of  the  evidence  most  approved  by 
our  illumined  judgment.  We  are  ever  being 
exalted  to  truth,  so  that  truth  is  constantly  be¬ 
ing  viewed  more  and  more  in  its  reality,  so 
that  less  and  less  we  see  men  as  trees  walking. 
The  Archbishop’s  distinction  is  of  his  own 
making  rather  than  a  real  one.  The  inquiry 
as  to  special  revelation  is  to  be  answered  in 
the  same  way;  the  process  is  the  same. 


PROGRESSIVE  REVELATION  85 


We  must  first  inquire  of  philosophy,  the 
foundation  of  all  sciences.  Here  we  are  on 
common  ground,  for  whether  or  not  we  so 
will,  we  are  all  philosophers — good,  bad  or 
indifferent — for  we  are  all  concerned  with  the 
riddles  of  life.  The  history  of  philosophy  is 
a  history  of  mental  progress.  At  times 
thought  has  seemed  to  stand  still  for  a  gener¬ 
ation  or  longer,  and  then  within  a  life  time  ad¬ 
vance  faster  and  farther  than  in  a  century 
previous.  The  several  so-called  clearing-up 
times,  in  Greek  thought  for  example,  were 
not  death-throes  but  birth-struggles.  What 
was  a  group  of  physical  entities  to  the  early 
physiologers,  an  “ever  becoming”  to  Heracli¬ 
tus,  “nous”  to  Anaxagoras,  was  plunged  into 
philosophic  chaos  by  skeptic  and  sophist.  But 
even  thence  thought  rose  again,  phoenix-like. 
Following  in  the  footsteps  of  his  master, 
Plato  found  his  hope  in  the  world  of  Ideas 
and  Aristotle’s  work  was  a  practical  applica¬ 
tion  of  that  of  Plato.  Through  it  all  thought 


86 


A  WORKING  BASIS 


was  steadily  advancing.  No  more  interesting 
chapter  in  history  can  be  found  than  the 
Alexandrian  period  when  Greek  and  Oriental 
thought  met,  contended,  and  gradually 
merged.  Throughout  the  history  of  thought 
each  generation  has  left  its  deposit  as  surely 
as  the  overflowing  Nile,  enriching  the  soil  and 
raising  the  level.  Why  must  the  histories,  as 
Bancroft,  Schouler,  Mosheim,  Neander,  and 
others  be  displaced?  Not  only  by  reason  of 
the  accumulating  material  but  also  because  of 
the  changing  view-point,  not  shifting  but  mov¬ 
ing  on.  Advancing  thought  compels  restate¬ 
ment. 

Evolution,  which  has  turned  out  to  be  some¬ 
thing  quite  other  than  what  many  expected, 
is  now  defined  as  “The  sum  of  changes  where¬ 
by  things  have  come  to  be  as  they  are.”  Evo¬ 
lution  is  not  a  creative  agency  or  the  pedigree 
of  the  race,  but  another  name  for  develop¬ 
ment,  a  record  of  a  progressive  series  of  mul¬ 
tiplying  and  diversifying  forms,  a  series  the 


PROGRESSIVE  REVELATION  87 


discovering  mind  must  traverse  in  the  inverse 
order.  God  is  in  and  throughout  His  world 
and  is  discovered  by  the  toiling  mind  that  dil¬ 
igently  seeks  Him,  whether  in  upturned  ledge, 
the  driving  storm,  the  mysteries  of  life,  or 
between  the  covers  of  Israel’s  covenant. 

The  various  attempts  at  a  graphic  pre¬ 
sentation  of  the  progress  of  revelation  are  at 
best  pathetic.  Distinctions  of  degree  and 
kind,  conjectures  as  to  the  gradual  passing  of 
revelation  and  the  increasing  dominance  of 
reason  like  an  entering  wedge  into  the  spirit¬ 
ual  economy,  and  all  similar  mechanical  de¬ 
vices  are  to  be  rigidly  eschewed.  It  must  be 
patent  that  the  Infinite  is  not  shut  up  to  one 
mode  of  procedure,  and  that  mode  the  one 
with  which  we  are  familiar,  else  He  were  no 
longer  infinite.  It  does  not  follow  that  be¬ 
cause  certain  phenomena  in  Israel’s  life  are 
not  repeated  that  revelation  has  ceased. 
Change  may  well  be  change  in  mode  and  not 
in  substance. 


88 


A  WORKING  BASIS 


Instructive  is  the  study  of  comparative  re¬ 
ligions.  The  church  has  long  since  abandoned 
tne  view-point  of  St.  Augustine  in  whose 
“City  of  God”  we  have  a  wholesale  arraign¬ 
ment  of  the  religious  beliefs  and  of  the  ethical 
teachers  of  Greece  and  Rome.  We  have 
learned  to  avoid  odious  comparisons  and  to 
see  in  the  several  faiths  stages  in  men’s  ap¬ 
prehension  of  God.  The  missionary  in  the 
foreign  field  is  teaching  us  wisdom.  Recog¬ 
nition  of  other  faiths  gives  us  warrant  for  the 
broad  basis  of  religion,  and  this  renders  eas¬ 
ier  by  comparison  the  vindication  of  the 
claims  of  Christianity.  It  is  not  to  Paul’s  dis¬ 
advantage,  for  example,  that  some  of  the 
truths  set  forth  by  him  may  have  been  fore¬ 
shadowed  by  Plato.  Things  arc  not  true  be¬ 
cause  Paul  said  them :  Paul  said  them  because 
they  were  and  are  true.  The  bitter  experiences 
through  which  Israel  passed  were  not  mere 
chance  or  accident.  It  did  Israel  good  to 
come  into  contact  with  the  cults  of  Canaan, 


PROGRESSIVE  REVELATION  89 


Persia,  and  Babylon,  and  to  be  forced  into 
relations  with  the  several  national  groups  of 
the  times.  Israel’s  religion  was  thereby  grad¬ 
ually  purged  of  dross.  The  Exile  brought 
Israel  into  contact  with  Asiatic  institutions 
other  than  their  own,  and  the  Greek  conquest 
in  the  fourth  century  brought  in  Greek  insti¬ 
tutions  and  influences.  In  such  social  and  com¬ 
mercial  intercourse  there  resulted  a  reciprocal 
influence.  Israel  and  especially  Judaism  was 
aroused  to  greater  mental  activity;  the  habits 
of  national  stagnation  were  broken;  uncon¬ 
sciously  but  surely  new  ideas  were  either  borne 
in  or  stirred  up  in  the  life  and  thought  of  the 
people. 

The  Old  and  New  Testaments  afford  a 
splendid  example  of  a  gradual  and  a  progres¬ 
sive  revelation.  Two  points  here  must  be 
borne  in  mind:— (i)  In  these  records  we 
have  an  expression  of  the  manward  side.  They 
give  man’s  enlightened  apprehension  of  Di¬ 
vine  things.  It  has  been  said  truly  that  God 


90 


A  WORKING  BASIS 


created  man  in  His  image  and  that  man  re¬ 
turned  the  compliment  by  creating  God  in 
his.  Thus  the  apparent  difficulty  in  the  early 
books  need  not  trouble  us.  We  have  no  need 
to  apologize  for  God.  The  crudities  are  due 
to  the  imperfections  of  men’s  thinking  at  the 
time.  It  need  not  disturb  us,  for  example,  if 
the  writer  of  the  epistle  to  the  Hebrews  did 
not  see  the  message  in  all  the  fullness  of  that 
of  Paul.  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  a  trust¬ 
worthy  though  brief  account  of  the  discourses 
of  Jesus,  gives  us  our  nearest  approach  to  the 
ethical  content  of  the  Gospel,  yet  to  the  last 
Jesus  was  forced  to  remind  his  closest  fol¬ 
lowers  of  their  imperfect  vision.  (2)  We 
must  bear  in  mind  the  true  order  of  the  ca¬ 
nonical  books  of  the  Old  Testament.  This 
order  materially  different  from  that  found  in 
our  English  versions,  is  that  given  to  us  by 
the  Hebrews  themselves,  represents  the  oldest 
tradition  and  must  be  noted  in  all  considera¬ 
tions  of  the  development  of  Israel’s  life  and 


PROGRESSIVE  REVELATION  91 


thought. 

Likewise  in  the  New  Testament  we  must 
note  carefully,  so  nearly  as  attainable,  the  or¬ 
der  in  which  the  several  books  were  com¬ 
posed.  Thus  the  first  witness  of  the  Christian 
Church  is  Paul  and  the  Gospels  are  later,  the 
Fourth  Gospel  probably  among  the  last  of 
the  collection.  Indeed,  so  late  as  the  time  of 
Eusebius,  ca.  340  A.  D.,  the  canonical  list  of 
the  New  Testament  books  was  still  in  dispute. 

(3)  Note  must  be  taken  also  of  the  char¬ 
acter  of  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament. 
Thus,  the  so-called  historical  books  were  by 
their  authors  styled  prophetic.  They  were 
didactic  in  spirit  and  purpose  rather  than  his¬ 
torical  or  scientific.  The  great  purpose  of 
the  Old  Covenant  is  to  admonish,  exhort,  and 
to  emphasize  the  merciful  dealings  of  God 
with  men.  The  books  of  the  New  Testament 
are  to  be  similarly  considered.  The  Pauline 
letters  are  not  formal  epistles  but  familiar  let¬ 
ters  written  to  meet  specific  occasions.  Hence 


92 


A  WORKING  BASIS 


logical  structure  even  when  it  exists  is  purely 
subsidiary.  Even  the  Gospels  though  they 
partake  more  of  the  historical  character,  are 
informal  accounts  composed  for  the  good  of 
the  Christian  community.  They  lack  the  lit¬ 
erary  finish  of  the  later  Apologists  whose  mis¬ 
sion  was  to  present  the  cause  to  the  outside 
world.  > 

A  few  examples  will  suffice  for  illustration. 
The  book  of  Ruth,  for  example,  a  marvel  in 
its  breadth  of  view  and  in  its  tolerant  attitude 
toward  foreigners,  fits  without  a  jar  into  the 
scheme  of  the  divine  training  of  Israel.  The 
son  of  an  orthodox  Jew  marries  a  girl  from  a 
hated  race,  and  this  girl  becomes  a  model  of 
fidelity  and  finally  appears  as  an  ancestress  of 
the  royal  line  and  even  of  the  expected  Mes¬ 
siah.  The  book  of  Jonah  is  no  longer  a  fish 
story.  The  attitude  of  the  writer  toward 
Nineveh,  Israel’s  arch  oppressor,  marks  a 
sublime  attainment  in  the  nation’s  develop¬ 
ment,  and  more  nearly  than  any  other  Old 


PROGRESSIVE  REVELATION  93 


Testament  book  approximates  the  ideals  of 
the  New.  The  language  of  Jesus,  “For  the 
hardness  of  your  hearts  Moses  gave  you  these 
sayings,  but  I  say  unto  you,”  marks  no  formal 
repudiation  of  the  old  Covenant,  no  abroga¬ 
tion  or  repeal.  The  old  garment  when  out¬ 
grown  was  gradually  put  off  and  the  new  one 
donned  without  struggle,  as  is  always  the  case 
when  there  is  life  and  vitality.  The  record  of 
the  Testaments  is  one  of  gradual  growth.  In 
the  course  of  canonization  our  Biblical  liter¬ 
ature  underwent  a  sifting  process.  What  in 
the  course  of  time  in  the  use  of  synagogue 
and  church  proved  in  experience  to  have  most 
of  spiritual  nourishment,  became  canonical 
because  of  its  superior  fitness.  In  a  sense  the 
selection  was  artificial  because  the  criterion 
was  adaptedness  to  human  needs.  In  another 
sense  the  selection  was  divine,  for,  as  in  nature 
we  discover  a  divinity  revealing  itself,  so  in 
religious  literatures,  and  especially  in  our  Bi¬ 
blical  writings,  we  recognize  God  revealing 


94 


A  WORKING  BASIS 


Himself,  or  at  least  being  revealed,  in  an  ad¬ 
vancing  spiritual  creation.  Here  is  one  con¬ 
ception  of  Paul,  another  of  Hebrews,  and  an¬ 
other  of  the  Johannine  writers.  Each  sought 
faithfully  to  give  to  his  fellows  the  vision  as 
it  stood  revealed  to  him.  It  were  better  in¬ 
stead  of  fruitless  endeavors  at  harmonizing, 
to  seek  in  the  resultant  of  all  the  foreshadow¬ 
ings  at  least  of  that  which  is  real. 

What  further  steps  there  may  be  for  us  to 
take,  is  beyond  our  power  to  say, — what  man 
is  to  be  as  the  culmination  of  spiritual  crea¬ 
tion.  We  must  judge  the  future  by  the  past. 
In  the  ancient  records  we  trace  an  arc  of  that 
vast  circle  in  whose  completing  process  we  al¬ 
ready  divine  the  scheme  of  development. 


ON  FAITH  AND  SCIENCE 


"Science  is  ■  trained  and  organ¬ 
ized  common  sense."  — Huxley. 

"Science  corrects  the  old  creeds,  sweeps 
away  with  every  new  perception  our  infantile 
catechisms,  and  necessitates  a  faith  commen¬ 
surate  with  the  grander  orbits  and  universal 
laws  which  it  discloses."  —Emerson. 


r 


ON  FAITH  AND  SCIENCE 


A  CONSIDERABLE  series  of 
stories  by  prominent  writers 
brings  us  to  the  problem — can  the 
growing  scientific  spirit  be  recon¬ 
ciled  with  faith?  The  challenge  of  Allison 
Parr — “acceptance  of  authority  is  not  faith” 
— drives  Hodder  to  much  heart  searching 
and  shifting  of  position.  Theron  Ware  finds 
himself  preaching  “cautious  and  edifying  doc¬ 
trinal  discourses”  to  the  regulars  at  the  morn¬ 
ing  service,  and  “to  the  evening  as¬ 
semblages,  made  up  for  the  larger  part  of 
outsiders,  he  addresses  broadly  liberal  ser¬ 
mons,  literary  in  form,  and  full  of  respectful 
allusions  to  modern  science  and  the  philoso¬ 
phy  of  the  day.”  But  when  he  comes  to  a  town 
where  the  faithful  were  ever  present,  the  par¬ 
son’s  woes  began.  The  sharp  questioning  of 
Hope  Farwell  followed  by  the  treachery  of 

97 


98 


A  WORKING  BASIS 


a  fat,  contented  church  drives  Dan  Matthews 
to  seek  a  true  ministry  and  to  find  it  among 
the  hills  about  his  old  home.  Brought  face 
to  face  with  critical  views  on  time  honored 
dogmas,  Robert  Elsmere  finds  in  life  only  a 
horrible  nightmare  and  dies  at  last  a  victim  of 
his  intellectual  struggle  and  anguish. 

Great  as  are  these  stories,  their  heroes  get 
stuck  in  the  bark.  Caught  in  the  letter  they 
miss  the  spirit.  They  cannot  see  the  forest 
for  the  trees,  the  city  for  the  houses.  It  is 
possible  to  get  one’s  mental  furniture  so 
screwed  to  the  floor  that  repairs  cause  dam¬ 
age.  One  of  the  virtues  of  a  trained  mind, 
theological  or  scientific,  is  a  reasonable  degree 
of  mobility. 

We  have  first  to  consider  the  changing 
character  of  science.  We  are  wont  to  capi¬ 
talize  and  to  include  within  quotation  marks 
and  then  to  rest  serene  in  terms,  as  “Science,” 
“Law,”  “Electricity”  or  “Electrical  Energy,” 
“Conservation,”  “Inertia,”  “Inertia  is  that 


ON  FAITH  AND  SCIENCE  99 


property  of  a  body  by  virtue  of  which. 
And  these  titles  are  all  means  wherewith  to 
label  our  ignorance.  Our  brief  observation 
we  summarize  under  a  statement  and  call  the 
same  a  law,  or  even  “Law.”  But  a  few  more 
observations  or  deductions  by  a  keener  mind 
than  ours  have  left  our  term  and  definition 
stranded  high  and  dry  in  the  dictionary. 
There  is  no  more  suggestive  shelf  in  the  sec¬ 
ond-hand  store  than  that  labeled  Science. 
To  Descartes  the  so-called  pineal  gland  con¬ 
stituted  the  point  of  contact  between  mind 
and  body;  to  another  it  is  the  “vestige  of  an 
aborted  eye,”  “a  vestigial  sense-organ.”  The 
anatomist  of  today  modestly  declares  that  its 
function  is  unknown,  and  will  even  acknowl¬ 
edge  that  medicine  is  not  yet  an  exact  science. 
The  history  of  such  ideas  as  the  circulation  of 
the  blood,  the  rotundity  of  the  earth  and  its 
forward  movement  in  the  solar  system  is 
further  exemplification.  Evolution  has  been 
modified  by  mutation,  and  the  nebular  by  the 


lOO 


A  WORKING  BASIS 


plantesimal  hypothesis.  From  Comstock  to 
the  writers  of  the  American  Science  Series  is  a 
far  cry  and  enough  to  keep  us  humble. 

Again,  we  may  ask,  “What  is  faith?”  We 
may  begin  by  determining  what  it  is  not. 
And,  first,  it  is  not  an  immutable  something; 
it  is  an  attitude,  as  it  were,  of  mind,  an  alert¬ 
ness  and  readiness  with  light  baggage,  as  a 
minute-man,  to  move  on.  Further,  it  is  not 
a  concrete  example  of  the  acceptance  of  a  spe¬ 
cific  dogma  or  creed.  It  is  not  the  mind  or 
that  on  which  the  mind  has  settled,  but  the 
mode  of  action,  an  attitude  of  our  thinking, 
and  takes  its  rise  in  the  fact  of  our  thinking. 
It  may  be  moral :  it  is  also  intellectual.  Man 
is  an  integer,  and  whatever  touches  upon  one 
phase  of  his  personality  concerns  him  entirely 
and  throughout.  Faith  is  loyalty  to  the  best 
we  know,  the  best  that  is  within  us.  Faith  is 
progressive  and  should  grow  more  significant 
with  years  and  wisdom. 

The  prime  difficulty  is  one  of  unsymmetri- 


ON  FAITH  AND  SCIENCE  loi 


cal  development.  The  boy  enters  the  Univer¬ 
sity  with  a  boy’s  knowledge  of  science,  art,  re¬ 
ligion.  He  leaves  the  University  with  a  man’s 
idea  of  science,  and  art,  but  still  with  a  boy’s 
idea  of  religion.  Comparisons  can  not  but  be 
odious — by  reason  of  unequal  development, 
the  result  of  unsymmetrical  training.  Knowl¬ 
edge  added  to  faith  broadens  and  deepens 
faith. 

Revelation  is  not  merely  a  pouring  some¬ 
thing  into  a  receptacle.  The  receptive  mind 
is  not  merely  passive.  As  the  mountain  peaks 
reflect  the  glory  of  the  rising  day  while  dark¬ 
ness  holds  the  intervening  valleys,  so  revela¬ 
tion  is  for  him  who  aspires,  seeks,  and  strives. 
Revelation  is  not  gratuitous  but  is  granted  as 
the  price  of  endeavor. 


*  s  k  i' »» 


